The privately owned 1855 Wallace House is the site of a meeting between President Lincoln and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 3, 1865 after the fall of Petersburg. / Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

by Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

by Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

RICHMOND, Va. - It took almost four years of war for Union troops to seize this confederate capital in 1865. In 2011, Hollywood accomplished the feat in just 53 days, and the city is still buzzing about it.

With the DVD release of the movie Lincoln out next week, and the spring tourist season coming into bloom, Virginia's capital and nearby locales that served as real-life backdrops are seizing the opportunity to capitalize on their role in the Steven Spielberg-directed film about passage of the 13th Amendment and the final days of the Civil War.

Besides self-guided tours of movie sites (and special, guided Lincoln-themed tours of the Virginia State Capitol, which played multiple roles in the movie), the 16th president's flesh-and-blood presence south of the Mason-Dixon line in the waning days of the war is garnering fresh attention.

"The movie was a shot in the arm for the city," says Joe Longo, general manager of the city's grandedame Jefferson Hotel, where much of the cast stayed during the 53 days of filming.

On one historic tour employing a decidedly 21st-century conveyance, Segway of Richmond traces Lincoln's visit to Richmond shortly after its fall. Disembarking from a boat on the James River, the president visited the White House of the Confederacy and Capitol Square, before touring the burned-out business district.

Historically, Lincoln hasn't rated much of a presence in this Southern city. The larger-than-life statues lining stately Monument Avenue west of downtown pay tribute to Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Jeb Stuart and other Confederate heroes. (A delightful, if incongruous, exception in the lineup is tennis champion and Richmond native Arthur Ashe.)

But in 2003, a striking bronze of a weary-looking Lincoln and his son, Tad, was installed on the grounds of the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar. The museum occupies 8 riverfront acres on the site of a former munitions factory and examines the war from the Confederate, Union and African-American perspectives. On the same site, the National Park Service-operated Civil War Visitor Center focuses on Richmond's wartime experience.

The other White House

Lincoln's 1865 tour of Richmond is recorded at the White House of the Confederacy, which sits in the heart of the city. The rooms retain many of the original Victorian furnishings, and tours offer a fascinating glimpse into President Jefferson Davis' 3½-year tenure here.

Lincoln visited on April 4, two days after Davis' departure, and met with Union officials in the small first-floor study. The scene was re-created here for the National Geographic movie Killing Lincoln, released in February.

"Lincoln walked from the docks to this house unmolested," says guide Charlie Bizzell. "Ten days later, he was assassinated in Washington."

About 25 miles south of Richmond, Petersburg's Old Towne district retains so much of its 18th- and 19th-century character, it provided an almost ready-made back lot for the Lincoln filming. The mix of storefronts along Old Street and cobbled Cockade Alley required little more than new signage, humus to conceal the asphalt and digital manipulation to erase the power lines.

"The wonder for the production team was the fact that they could do panoramic shots," says Kevin Kirby, Petersburg's cultural affairs manager.

The city was the site of a 10-month blockade from June 1864 to April 1865 - the longest period any U.S. city has been under siege - as Union troops sought to shut off supply lines to Richmond. The aptly named Siege Museum in the handsome Greek Revival Exchange Building documents the hardship during that period.

Empty storefronts and once-stately homes that have fallen into disrepair are evidence of more recent hard times. The tobacco industry once accounted for two-thirds of all jobs here, and the city never recovered after the departure in the mid-1980s of tobacco giant Brown & Williamson. Adding to the economic distress was a 1993 tornado that caused some Old Towne businesses to close and never return.

Better times ahead?

But a fledgling arts community is taking root. Newcomers have arrived, many of them lured by historic real estate at low prices. Among the transplants are Beverly Rivers and her husband, Jeff Abugel, who scoured the East Coast in search of a historic dwelling to buy before landing here in 2002. They later bought an 1814 building (originally a hotel; Edgar Allan Poe honeymooned upstairs) and opened Hiram Haines Coffee & Ale House, named for a former newspaper publisher. It's a cozy, book-filled space popular with locals.

"We fell in love with this place," says Rivers, a former national magazine editor.

Lincoln made three trips to Petersburg between 1862 and the war's end in 1865. The places he visited have been newly notated for present-day tourists in anticipation of interest generated by Lincoln the movie.

"For us, the film has brought a greater awareness that Lincoln did come south of Washington," Kirby says. "And what took place here was pretty monumental."

"This is where the war ended," he says. "There's incredible history here that's been lying dormant for years. A lot of things have just been left alone, which I guess is why Spielberg came here. The integrity is intact."

If you go ...

The Lincoln Movie Trail (virginia.org/Lincoln) is a self-guided tour of sites in Richmond and Petersburg that factored into the making of Lincoln, which will be released on DVD next week.

Walk in Lincoln's Final Footsteps (walkinlincolnsfinalfootsteps.com) chronicles the places the 16th president visited in and around Petersburg near the end of the Civil War.

The Virginia Tourism Corp. also has complied a comprehensive guide to places within the state that Lincoln visited during the Civil War (virginia.org/LincolninVirginia).